[MBA] BSchool tour

I am just back from a weeklong BSchool tour. I visited Sloan, Tuck, Harvard, Wharton and Kellogg, throwing in an interview at Kellogg for good measure. Before posting detailed accounts about each school visit experience I'd like to make a few general points.

1. If at all possible don't visit 5 different schools in 4 different cities on 5 consecutive days. It's really hectic and you start mixing schools up towards the end of your tour. In fact I have to hurry to put my thoughts on here before I really start to assign experiences to the wrong schools.

2. All my comments are based on my personal experience with a snapshot of the school - one particular class, a few particular students and so on. So generalize at your own risk.

3. It would be great if schools could put visitors in touch with more 2nd year students. 1st year students definitely are great resources for admission related questions. But at this time of the year they don't know much more about the school culture/alumni/job (internship) hunt process than does an applicant who has done his/her research.

As for my application process, I have decided to move Wharton to R2. All my would be essay reviewers are caught up in the MBA 2nd year job hunt frenzy. So I would be lucky to get even Kellogg in for R1. I'll give it a shot though.

I have also decided to make Stanford and not Harvard my long shot application. I attended Stanford's info session before starting on my tour and just feel that it would be a much better fit for me. I had decided some time back that I would apply to only one of these two. So that saves me a Harvard reject :)